How Twickenham looked south to make days off pay

There may be fireworks on the pitch as England play New Zealand in front of a record 82,000 crowd at Twickenham on Sunday; there will definitely be pyrotechnics afterwards, with a Bonfire Night fireworks spectacular plus post-match appearances by Girls Aloud and G4 as part of celebrations to mark the opening of the £100m South Stand.

At Twickenham yesterday builders were still installing seats in the unfinished stand, spectators will have to put up with temporary toilets and bars, and the roof will not be in place until the Six Nations early next year. But the official opening by Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, and Francis Baron, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, is still of huge significance for the future funding of English rugby and the game's grassroots.

"There is frantic activity and it is a bit 'just in time' but we are confident Sunday will be fantastic," said Paul Vaughan, the RFU's business operations director. "It is a major step in the commercial development of the RFU, but the challenge, when it is finished, will be to develop new revenue streams for the future of the sport."

The completion of the seating bowl of the stadium means Twickenham's capacity will increase from 74,000. The additional 8,000 seats will generate another £400,000 in ticket revenue, bringing Sunday's total takings to £4m.

The plan is simple - to use the stadium and its facilities to bring in money from sources other than the 15-20 match days a year. "Our overriding objective is striving towards creating revenue streams 365 days a year to invest in the elite game and the grassroots," Vaughan said yesterday. "It is very important that the stadium is multifunctional."

By the end of next summer the new facilities will include a 156-room Marriott Hotel, a Virgin Active health and leisure club with a swimming pool geared for local membership, and a street-facing branch of the Rugby Store. Alongside new offices for the RFU there will be banqueting and conference facilities, plus a 400-seat theatre available for community use on 30 days a year.

"Twickenham will become a destination in its own right with something going on all year round," Vaughan added. "We are not short of car parking, we are only six miles from Heathrow and fairly close to the centre of London. There will be a surge of economic activity for the local area."

A few years ago Twickenham was seen as a bad neighbour by local residents, who dreaded large-scale disruption on match days, but Vaughan said the needs of the community were now built into what the RFU does. There are ballots for 200 pairs of tickets for international matches for local residents, an increase on the previous 25 pairs, and there will be offers of health-club discounts.

However, when the long-delayed Wembley finally opens next year Twickenham will face renewed competition. It is currently licensed to stage three concerts a year and has hosted the Rolling Stones and U2, but is applying to increase the figure to five.

Vaughan said that Twickenham, built largely on time and budget, had benefited from the expertise of members who are architects and surveyors. "We were able to use our own expertise to manage the project and unlike Wembley or the Olympics there was no government money involved, which meant streamlined decision-making."

Much of the cost will be met by the sale of debenture seating and Twickenham's burgeoning hospitality market. The sale of personal debentures, guaranteeing the right to buy match tickets over a period of 10-15 years, has generated £19.7m and business debentures have raised £2.56m.

The new stand has room for 5,000 customers to have lunch on match days and there will be 38 hospitality boxes, 34 of which will be operating on Sunday. The RFU formed Twickenham Experience Ltd, a joint venture with the catering company Compass, to cope with the enhanced level of pre-match dining, generating revenue of £17-£20m a year.

Increased capacity in the stand means the large double-deck River Suite marquee which housed 3,500 people on match days will no longer be needed. Vaughan said there would be substantial savings as a result, increasing margins on the catering operation. The next redevelopment phase will include reshaping and landscaping the car parks and further developing the West car park food court, with its Guinness, Greene King and Bollinger bars.

The RFU's strategic plan comes with a grandiose mission statement proclaiming itself "commercially and financially the strongest union in the world to provide the investment resource necessary to achieve our aspirations for the game". The RFU aims to build a mixed range of income and not be totally reliant on television money. Whereas cricket is 80% dependent on its exclusive deal with Sky, rugby has set a limit of 20-25%. "If it goes wrong they could be looking at a big hole. We have a more balanced approach."

Next on Vaughan's list is the establishment of a joint-venture travel company. "If it is relevant to the rugby community we would explore ways of developing any businesses that would benefit Twickenham and the game. From top to bottom the game needs revenue - and more and more of it each year."